PRISON NOT THE ANSWER FOR ILLEGAL DRUG USERS

Editor, the Tribune:

Regarding William Raspberry's thoughtful May 9 column, the government's own
statistics reveal that the drug war is being waged in a racist manner.
Although only 15 percent of the nation's drug users are black, blacks
account for 37 percent of those arrested for drug violations, over 42
percent of those in federal prisons for drug violations and almost 60
percent of those in state prisons for drug felonies. Support for the drug
war would end overnight if whites were incarcerated for drugs at the same
rate as minorities. Racially disproportionate incarceration rates are not
the only cause for alarm. Our taxes are financing for-profit prison systems
that serve to transmit violent habits and values rather than reduce them.

The vast majority of illicit drug users hold jobs. Rather than waste tax
dollars turning potentially productive members of society who use drugs
into hardened criminals, we should be funding cost-effective treatment. The
drug war confounds treatment by driving use underground. Would alcoholics
seek treatment if doing so were tantamount to confessing to criminal
activity? Likewise, would putting every incorrigible alcoholic behind bars
and saddling them with criminal records prove cost-effective?

America operates the largest prison system in the world, in large part
because of the never-ending drug war. It's time to declare drug peace and
start treating all drug use, legal or otherwise, as the public health
problem it is.

Robert Sharpe, program officer The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation

4455 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite B-500

Washington, D.C.